After watching dozens of "Law & Order: SVU" and "NCIS" episodes I am left wondering ...
No, I'm not wondering whether Tony and Ziva or Olivia and Elliot will finally get down to the nitty gritty and do the deed, well at least not in this post ...
I wonder, like Del Shannon I wa-wa-wa-wa-wonder, what real-life detectives and special agents look like? Act like? Talk like? Obviously, they are sexed up for TV. Mariska Haritgay's beautiful face and beautifully curvy body (look at you with all those curves and me with no brakes!), Chris Meloni's hulking figure and steamy masculinity, Michael Weatherly's dimply smile and handsomeness, Cote de Pablo's tough girl sexuality ... Americans don't like ugly people ... at least we don't want to invite them into our living rooms week after week. We want you light, bright, damn near white and pretty.
I understand there's a gap between real life and TV life (duh) but how much of a gap? What are real-life detectives and special agents like? I see commercials for shows like "Covert Affairs" with hottie spy Piper Pablo and know this can't be the norm.
These shows are entertaining and exciting for the average person who lives their life on auto-pilot ... wake up, shower, coffee, breakfast, work, lunch, work more, home, dinner, TV, sleep ... lather, rinse, repeat. For the most part, we don't know much about fighting crime, whether it's for special victims in NYC or naval investigations or whatever, all we know is "crime fighting" sounds pretty damn exciting ... like superheroes. So, with that in mind, TV executives feed us crime fighters who have all the right moves while adding humanity.
Crime fighting is not only sexy, it's exciting, dangerous and badass! When I grow up I wanna be a detective daddy!
Also, more often than not, these shows have tight ends (get your mind out of the gutter) to the drama with help from fancy tools like DNA databases and fingerprint searches with pictures of felons and information, high tech forensic labs and sexy brainiacs like the dark hottie Abby Sciuto, played by Pauley Perrette, and the walking encyclopedia Ducky, played by David McCallum.
Detective Stabler follows his gut and grills the victim until she admits she was lying about being raped, a tough thug takes Ziva's status as a woman for granted and she beats the crap out of him with skilled ease. Each character has flaws, inner demons that come out to play from time to time. Stress from the job or a shaky relationship, problems working too many hours, deaths in the family, checkered pasts, etc.
Yeah, there are a lot of differences between these shows and real life, especially the not so exciting aspects of police work, aka paperwork and not solving the crime. However, what about looks? What do the real-life tough guys/gals look like?
I wouldn't know because these heroes aren't celebrated in society. Instead of a detective or agent who solves a big crime (in real life), we know and care more about Detective Benson and how she is the product of a rape. We know more about Timothy McGee aka McGoo, played by Sean Murray, and how he is awkward around women and loves video games.
We know more about TV characters than real people because it's safe. They are there when we want them and we can look in on their lives and turn it off when we've had enough. And what lives they lead! Exciting lives and high drama that always seems to end more or less happily. Wouldn't it be so nice if that was real life? Well, it's not so let's sit back, relax and play pretend and after a while, after episode after episode, that is what you will believe.
Also, especially with SVU, there are some pretty heavy topics ... rape, murder, abuse ... but it's OK because it's a TV show. If we get scared, we turn the boob tube off and think happy thoughts to fly to Never Never Land.
Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.
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